Hon Shane Jones
Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises

A new ‘super depot’ to be built for NZ Post in Wellington will create around 350 jobs during construction, Associate Minister for State Owned Enterprises Shane Jones says.

Shane Jones today attended a ground-breaking and blessing ceremony for the parcel-processing depot at Grenada.

“As an essential service, posties and couriers worked throughout the COVID-19 Level 4 lockdown to deliver essential items to Kiwis, and they have continued to work through the resulting massive demand for e-commerce,” Shane Jones said.

“New Zealanders will be aware of the issues that surrounded the ability of NZ Post to deal with the huge surge in parcel post during lockdown. This new state of the art depot will provide NZ Post with the capacity to process parcels more quickly and efficiently,” Shane Jones said.

Today’s ground-breaking marks progress in NZ Post’s 10-year plan for parcel growth, announcing today it is investing $170 million in its network to double its parcel-processing capacity from 95 million parcels today to 190 million parcels.

“This investment is good news for New Zealand businesses who are looking to grow their e-commerce presence or are already successful in this space, and for the customers who use those services.

The construction of the depot is good news for the Wellington regional economy, with the developer and contractor expecting to employ 350 people through 60 sub-contractors,” Shane Jones said.

The investment programme will include a new processing centre in Auckland and an upgrade to the southern operations centre in Christchurch.

The Wellington super depot is due to open in 2022.

NZ Post recently received a two-tranche equity injection of $150m from the Government’s COVID Response and Recovery Fund to ensure NZ Post’s immediate viability in light of falling revenue caused by COVID-19 and to allow it to invest confidently in the future.

The Government has also backed NZ Post to continue to deliver a world-class postal service with funding of $130m from Budget 2020 to allow it to maintain service levels as it positions itself for the future of mail.

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